Reynolds Recycling’s Hauula redemption center closed its doors to the public Tuesday after the city put up "no trespassing" signs on the Kamehameha Highway property.
The 20,000-square-foot property is the focus of a long-running dispute between the city and real estate agent Choon James, who bought the property in 2006.
The city has taken possession of the 20,000-square-foot site and told James and Reynolds that they have no legal authority to be there. But James has taken the dispute to court and refused to accept the city’s $521,000 check for the land, meaning she still retains the title to the property.
James said the city is "bullying" her, husband Mark and Reynolds by booting the recycling operation and giving the couple no say about what happens on the property when the dispute is still in litigation and is not expected to be heard in court until March.
"It’s a long time away, and the city is jumping the gun," James said. "We are still the fee owner."
Video that James shot last week showed city workers dismantling two large signs she had on the property and damaging a fence she had put up. The two signs voiced objection to the city’s use of its eminent domain powers to take the property. James said it was the second time the city had gone on the site to remove her protest signs and that the city is violating her right to free speech.
Jesse Broder Van Dyke, spokesman for Mayor Kirk Caldwell, said the city’s actions were legitimate.
"Since the city has control of the property, it has the responsibility to ensure it is not being used improperly," Broder Van Dyke said. "The commercial activity that was occurring was not authorized by the city."
For more than five years, the city has been eyeing the property as well as a neighboring parcel, owned by a James relative, as the site of a future Hauula fire station.
Caldwell had allocated money for fire station construction in this year’s capital improvements budget, only to see it deleted by the City Council, Broder Van Dyke said. But the mayor hopes to appropriate the money again next year, he said.
Reynolds marketing and development director Bruce Iverson said he and other company officials were "dumbfounded" when the city sent his company a letter earlier this month demanding that it vacate immediately. Reynolds has been on the property since January and had obtained all the documents necessary to operate, including at least one from the city.
Before that the Hauula redemption center was located next door, on property that had been owned by James’ sister. When the city said the operations there could not remain unless the redemption center went through a bidding process open to all recyclers, Choon James and her husband offered to lease their land.
Broder Van Dyke said the city wants to help Reynolds find another site in Hauula. Meanwhile, he said, "Choon James has done everything she can" to delay a project supported by both the Fire Department and "an overwhelming majority of the community."
City officials say the Jameses agreed to sell the property years ago but later reneged, forcing the city to begin eminent domain action against them. But Choon James said she and her husband only agreed to allow the city permission to send surveyors and "explore" the site and that they never agreed to sell it.
